The present disclosure relates to a paper-discharge apparatus for discharging conveyed paper, and an image-forming apparatus that is equipped with this paper-discharge apparatus.
An image-forming apparatus such as MFP, a printer, a copier, FAX and the like has plural bin trays (paper-discharge trays), and a paper-discharge apparatus for discharging printed paper that is conveyed from the main image-forming apparatus to one of the bin trays may be installed. In such a paper-discharge apparatus, plural path-switching members such as flappers are provided so that printed paper is discharged to a set bin tray as a discharge destination. There is a paper-discharge apparatus that has plural bin trays and switches the path according to the bin tray of the discharge destination.
More specifically, such a paper-discharge apparatus includes a protrusion that is integrally molded with a pulley and a belt around the pulley, a driving motor that drives the pulley and causes the belt to move around the protrusion, and sequentially pushes flappers up against the protrusion. By stopping the motor at a specified rotation position, an arbitrary flapper is deflected. When driving the switching flappers with solenoids, the number of solenoids needed is the same as the number of flappers, so attempts are being made to lower costs by reducing the number of parts by using a motor instead of solenoids.